Overview

The eruption of the anti-Assad revolution in Syria has had many unintended consequences, among which is the opportunity it offered Sunni jihadists to establish a foothold in the heart of the Middle East. That Syria's ongoing civil war is so brutal and protracted has only compounded the situation, as have developments in Iraq and Lebanon. Ranging across the battlefields and international borders have been dozens of jihadi Islamist fighting groups, of which some coalesced into significant factions such as Jabhat al Nusra and the Islamic State. This book assesses and explains the emergence since 2011 of Sunni jihadist organisations in Syria's fledgling insurgency, charts their evolution and situates them within the global Islamist project. Unprecedented numbers of foreign fighters have joined such groups, who will almost certainly continue to host them. Thus, external factors in their emergence are scrutinised, including the strategic and tactical lessons learned from other jihadist conflict zones and the complex interplay between Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and how it has influenced the jihadist sphere in Syria.Tensions between and conflict within such groups also feature in this indispensable volume.

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9781849045902

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Reviews

'A wonderful book which sets the standard for our understanding of the course and implications of Syria's war. Lister's writing is detailed and reliable, and captures the complexity of the conflict as well as its broad themes. The Syrian Jihad ranges more broadly across Islamist rebel landscape than other books currently available on the topic and will make an enduring contribution.'--Marc Lynch, author of The New Arab Wars: Uprisings and Anarchy Across the Middle East; Charles is the Syria expert whose work other Syria experts read. He uniquely combines strategic insight and forensic analytical skills to tell it like it is on the ground and - crucially - foretell what will happen next. On something as complex as the Syrian crisis, Charles' voice is authoritative.' - Gareth Bayley, UK Special Representative for Syria; 'Charles Lister has written a deeply reported account of the jihad in Syria, bringing to bear his extensive knowledge of the conflict to offer a persuasive analysis of how it has become the terrible war that it is today.'--Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: From 9/11 to Abbottabad, The Ten Year Search for Bin Laden; 'The Syrian Jihad is an insightful and comprehensive account of Syria's violent descent into civil war and the rise of Al-Qaeda's offspring in that war. This is essential reading for understanding the most difficult and complex international crisis facing the world community today.' - Bruce Riedel, Brookings Institution Intelligence Project, and author of Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of the Global Jihad; 'Charles Lister's book answers urgent questions about the modern Levant: where did the Syrian uprising come from, who have been its key actors and how has the revolutionary movement, especially the Islamist elements, evolved under the enormous pressures of violence and external powers? Lister himself knows the Islamist factions very well, and his book will become a standard reference.' - Robert Ford, former US Ambassador to Syria; 'Charles Lister offers compelling arguments woven together in a convincing and readable narrative. Drawing heavily on first-hand interviews, this ambitious and superbly organised account of the trajectories of Syria's various jihadi groups ranks it among the best books on how ISIS and Al Qaeda metastasized in the brutal chaos of the Syrian war.' - Andrew Tabler, Martin J. Gross Fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute'Lister's book will certainly become a classic of the literature on the Syrian civil war. This richly-documented study actually consists of two intertwined histories, as the account of the Jihadi in--surgency, a tour de force in its own right, is complemented with in-depth analysis of the broader military developments.' - Thomas Pierret, Lecturer in Contemporary Islam, University of Edinburgh and author of Religion and State in Syria: The Sunni Ulama from Coup to Revolution

'Lister's book will certainly become a classic of the literature on the Syrian civil war. This richly-documented study actually consists of two intertwined histories, as the account of the Jihadi in--surgency, a tour de force in its own right, is complemented with in-depth analysis of the broader military developments.' - Thomas Pierret, Lecturer in Contemporary Islam, University of Edinburgh and author of Religion and State in Syria: The Sunni Ulama from Coup to Revolution

Author Information

Charles R. Lister is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Doha Center. He was formerly head of the Middle East and North Africa section at IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.

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